When Michael Jackson died in June 2009, it felt like the end of the era of the global pop star.

Not only had the music industry radically changed by that point, audiences had more entertainment options than ever before, including enterprising kids who could become (Internet) famous overnight with a clever, no-budget YouTube video.

But the day before Jackson's memorial service, a young New Yorker born Stefani Germanotta released "Paparazzi," the fifth and final single from her debut album, "The Fame." A song about the pressures of being famous, Germanotta wrote it when she was a nobody, long before anyone knew her by her stage name, Lady Gaga. But it replicated the success of her previous singles -- "Just Dance," "Poker Face" and "LoveGame" -- and hit the top 10. And she was just getting started.

Lady Gaga is not as famous as Jackson was, nor will she ever sell nearly as many albums. But she has pulled off the remarkable feat of grabbing the world's attention and keeping it clenched in her fist.

She peaked commercially with 2009's "Bad Romance," a song that hit No. 1 everywhere from Mexico to Finland to Romania, but it's just one of at least a dozen truly global smashes from a woman who is still two years from turning 30.

With Lady Gaga returning to St. Paul Tuesday to headline the Xcel Energy Center for the fourth time in five years, here are five reasons why she's still worth all the fuss.

1. She's a hard worker and she's not afraid to share her spoils.

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Lady Gaga opened 2009 with her debut single, "Just Dance," landing at No. 1. She took advantage of that success and hit the road in March, spending the next two years on a nonstop tour that saw her jump from playing the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis to selling out two nights at the X.

While touring at that level is a full-time job for most musicians, Lady Gaga also found time to continue recording, shoot eye-popping music videos and make headlines by wearing a dress made of raw meat. And for all the money she was making, she was reinvesting it back into her music, her stage and her videos.

Even though her current album, "Artpop," is her weakest-selling record to date, she decided to turn the video for the third single "G.U.Y." into a old-school spectacle. She shot the nearly 12-minute clip at William Randolph Hearst's infamous Hearst Castle, the insanely grand mansion that inspired Xanadu in "Citizen Kane" and is now a state historic park. Stanley Kubrick was the last person to film there when he shot "Spartacus" in 1960. Reportedly, Lady Gaga spent nearly $300,000 of her own dough for the privilege.

2. She's got a sly sense of humor.

With all the glitter and glam, it's easy to forget Lady Gaga is not afraid to laugh at herself.

Lady Gaga performs at Roseland Ballroom on April 4, 2014, in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Her catalog is littered with joking asides and devilish grins, from the Shania Twain parody of "You and I" to her proclamation "I am rich as piss!" in "Mary Jane Holland." And this is a woman who not only wore a dress made of Kermit the Frog puppets, she launched "Artpop" with a Thanksgiving Day ABC special co-starring the Muppets, Elton John and RuPaul.

3. She's not afraid to bite the hand that feeds (and then vomit on it).

Pundits lined up to criticize Doritos for infiltrating this year's South by Southwest festival -- an event that was founded on giving unknown bands a chance to get noticed -- and booking Lady Gaga as the main attraction. But for her concert, Gaga hired controversial performance artist Millie Brown to join her onstage and regurgitate brightly colored milk across Gaga's nearly naked body.

Not only was it shocking and kind of gross, it instantly linked an iconic American brand not exactly known its health benefits with vomiting. And to top it all off, it apparently was a stunt worth imitating. Gaga's rival Katy Perry, of all people, is using similar imagery in a video shown during her just-launched tour.

4. She's in control over every aspect of her image.

Gaga is not just about slick, synth-driven pop songs and she doesn't rely solely on outrageous costumes and videos to turn heads. Instead, it's all part of a grand scheme where she's just as likely to be performing in an octopus outfit as she is stripped down to a bikini and accompanying herself on the piano.

It speaks volumes that she hired multi-millionaire artist Jeff Koons -- a man who made his fortune by creating gargantuan steel sculptures he admits have no deeper meaning -- to create the sleeve for "Artpop." Like a Koons balloon animal, Lady Gaga is massive, impossible to ignore and able to withstand her share of barbs.

Not all of what she does works, and her career is already dotted with frustrating dead ends, like the apparently shelved video for her recent single "Do What U Want." But she's not afraid to fail and she rarely repeats herself.

5. She's making some of the most interesting pop music on the planet.

Lady Gaga conquered the world with her debut album, "The Fame," but she has continued to push herself into new directions and is creating some of the most intriguing work in the musical mainstream in the process.

Her 2011 record "Born This Way" serves as a rough guide to modern electronic rock/pop, recalling Donna Summer ("Marry the Night"), Whitney Houston ("Fashion of His Love"), Abba ("Americano") and, of course, Madonna ("Born This Way"). The disc even offers nods to '80s metal, industrial music and Bruce Springsteen. As brazen and gleeful as her borrowings may be, she's no slouch in the songwriting department and packed nearly every song on the album with multiple hooks, both original and reinvented.

In contrast, Gaga's new one, "Artpop," moves her agenda right up to the modern day, with the help of underground dance producers Zedd and Madeon and a slew of guest rappers including T.I., Too Short and Twista. Not nearly as strong as "Born This Way," the album still offers the breezy modern disco stomper "Fashion," the goofy ode to marijuana "Mary Jane Holland," a heartfelt ballad dubbed "Dope" and "Gypsy," a dazzling anthem of freedom and self-expression from a woman who still has plenty left to share.